610 to 700 in 4 weeks?

Question

GMAT community, I need your help!

I took the GMAT two days ago and scored a lousy 610 (Q41, V34) after about 8 weeks of prep (2 hours a night and 5-6 hours on Saturdays and Sundays). I was using the official guide and was mostly focused on quant, did very little for verbal.

My biggest disappointment is that this is a far cry from my performance on the practice tests.
Here are my scores on the 4 official practice tests I took:
650 (Q44, V35)
690 (Q46, V39)
690 (Q48, V37)
690 (Q48, V36)

I have to get a 700. Could someone please tell me how can I do it within 4 weeks? I plan to re-take the exam again during the first week of September. 
How can I bridge the gap? Has anyone here been through this before? I would really appreciate any help or advice you could offer me.

Thank you,
Omar

gautkart · Answer

First of all, Congratulations on V34. It's a respectable score given that 700 is your target score. You have to improve your basics of quant which is quite easy when compared to improving verbal.
You should:-
1. review all the basics i.e the formulas, concepts etc.
2. Review your errors in the quant section in the mocks(I see that you got a Q46-48 over there and since the quant in the mocks is considered easier, I think you might have made silly mistakes over there.
3. Go for "GMAT club tests". They'll broaden your thinking and improve your score to 49-50 eventually.

So, all in all, Quants should be your focus but don't ignore verbal. Keep on practicing 10 SC, 10 CR and 2 passages a day to keep that flow going.

All the best

Give a kudos if found helpful!

Posted from my mobile device

Give a kudos if found helpful! Posted from my mobile device

700must · Answer

Thanks gautkart! I feel like I need a solid plan given the very little time I have left.

And you're right about the quant. I mean I thought I was doing fine on the practice tests, in my head I thought I could perhaps even stretch that 690 to a 700 on exam day with a bit of luck. Monday's exam was a rude awakening though. I got a few really difficult questions (particularly on counting, combinations and series) which I could not even attempt and just had to randomly guess on.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

HI Omar,

I’m sorry to hear how things went with your GMAT.

Assuming that you took your official practice exams under realistic testing conditions, the results show that, on a good day, you are capable of scoring higher than 610. Thus, it’s quite possible that nerves, stress, tiredness, or a combination of all three negatively affected your test-day performance. However, it’s also possible that you have some lingering weaknesses that were exposed on test day. Although I’m unsure of how you prepared, it’s possible that, in your preparation, particularly in verbal, you did not really learn to do what you have to do in order to score high on the actual GMAT. Rather, you picked up on some patterns that were effective in getting you relatively high scores on practice tests. So, for you to hit your score goal, your preparation, particularly for verbal, probably needs to be more complete, meaning that you have to go through the various types of GMAT questions carefully to find your exact weaknesses, fill gaps in your knowledge, and strengthen your skills.

For verbal specifically, you have to become more skilled at clearly defining the differences between trap choices and correct answers. Otherwise, you will get stuck guessing between two choices or be surprised to find that you incorrectly answered questions that you thought you answered correctly. Becoming more skilled in this way takes carefully analyzing all of the answer choices to lots of verbal questions to develop an eye for the logical differences between the choices. In other words, you have to go beyond answering practice questions and reading explanations to doing deep analysis of questions to learn to see everything that is going on in them.

In order to follow the path described above, you may need some new quant and verbal materials, so take a look at the GMAT Club reviews for the  best quant  and  verbal courses .

You also may find it helpful to read the following articles:

how to score a 700+ on the GMAT

Why Was My GMAT Score Lower Than My Practice Test Scores?

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Omar,

I'm sorry to hear that Test Day didn't go as well as planned. When these types of score drops occur, the two likely "causes" involve either something that was unrealistic during practice or something that was surprising (or not accounted for) on Test Day. Before we discuss any of those potential issues though, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

1) How many hours do you typically study each week?
2) Have you used any other study materials besides the OG?
3) On what dates did you take EACH of your CATs/mocks?
4) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?

You might also choose to purchase the Enhanced Score Report. While the ESR doesn’t provide a lot of information, there are usually a few data points that we can use to define what went wrong on Test Day (and what you should work on to score higher). If you purchase the ESR, then I'll be happy to analyze it for you.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

700must · Answer

Hi Scott, Hi Rich,

Thank you both so much for your detailed replies.

You're both right. I wasn't taking the practice tests under realistic conditions and the exam itself uncovered some of my underlying weaknesses.

I only used the OG and was doing about 20 hours a week, almost entirely just for quant. I did the official practice tests on July 19th, July 26th, August 1st and August 2nd, but I was taking long breaks and not doing the exam in one sitting. I didn't feel that tired during the actual GMAT though. The most ironic part is that during the actual exam I felt like I was doing absolutely fine on the quant section (I always start with quant) and that I was bombing the verbal section as I was going through it, that the questions kept getting easier and easier. My verbal score ended up being not far below what I typically get, but my quant score was an absolute catastrophe.

I definitely have a lot of room for improvement and want to make a quick turnaround. I just bought the ESR but apparently I can't attach it because I'm still a new member.

So I got 38, 29 and 32 on CR, RC and SC, in that order, and had a mean response time of 1:46 on this section. For any SC question I can always easily narrow it down to two answer choices and then rely on my ear, that might not be the best strategy though - I was torn on a couple of them. I knew that I was messing up on the RC questions though. I was too worried about the time and wasn't actually comprehending the passages all too much. I was also thrown off my game in the beginning of the section because I had come back from the break 17 seconds late and that freaked me out. I ended up finishing the section a bit early but my performance on the first quarter was poor (38%), even though the ESR says the questions in the first quarter were the easiest I received on that section.

Now on to the real travesty, quant. I got a 40 on arithmetic and a 41 on algebra/geometry and my mean response time was 1:59. It felt like I was headed to a Q48 though. The biggest problem I see is my performance on Counting/Sets/Series questions, I got a measly 20%! I have to start working on this area literally tonight.

I'm definitely going to exploit all the resources and tools available on this site, I wish I knew about it earlier. And I would really appreciate it if you guys had any additional study tips for me, or if you could perhaps help me organize my studying. I'm re-taking the exam in 4 weeks and I plan on applying this fall, targeting CBS and Haas.

Wish me luck!

EMPOWERgmatRichC   ScottTargetTestPrep

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Omar,

Before you can include attachments with your posts/PMs, you need to have at least 5 posts in the forums (right now, you have just 3 posts). If you would rather not go through those extra steps right now, then you can feel free to email your ESR directly to me (at [email protected]). Once we've had a chance to properly review your ESR, we can discuss how you might best proceed with your studies.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

CAMANISHPARMAR · Answer

I feel you just had an off exam day. Just recollect yourself. Prepare well and be confident.

All the best!

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

You've got this!! If you have any questions, let me know.

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